Bulgaria to lower bar in fresh attempt to sell freight unit of state rail co – media

Bulgaria opened the first sale procedure for the sale of the unit in June only to cancel it a month later due to lack of serious investor interest.

An official from the agency’s press office declined to confirm the news report when contacted by SeeNews, saying the decision has not been finalised.

Strategic investors will be required to have had a rail freight transport licence for the last five years, twice shorter the requirement in the previous tender, and a turnover of at least 100 million euro ($66.7 million) in each of the last three years, compared to 400 million euro required in the first sale attempt, newspaper Capital Daily reported.

Financial investors, meanwhile, will be required to have had at least 400 million euro in assets or equity holdings under management in each of the last three financial years, compared to 1.0 billion euro in the previous procedure.

The sale price will also be cut, the newspaper said.

The new tender procedure is expected to be launched by the end of the month.

($ = 0.7666 euro)